Putting together a trend report is a most daunting task. How to summarize months of work and countless looks—plus all the front-row chatter—into one list? After the pandemic, the project was even more challenging. What does one make of a season of contradictions? With the menswear shows taking place in Paris this month, the men’s shows were immediately followed by couture, effectively turning Paris into a two-week fashion marathon. It was go, go, go all the time, a pace not helped by the closed metro stations, ludicrous traffic, and a perceptible undercurrent of anxiety. That talk in the front row? It was often about just how few designers are making money and the world crises amidst which fashion strains for relevance.
On the runways what we saw was push-pull between magnitude and intimacy. A year after his debut show at Louis Vuitton, Pharrell Williams took over the UNESCO Headquarters courtyard for a massive display about togetherness, while Dior placed giant sculptures by the ceramicist Hylton Nel on his runway, where he sent out a sweater with the embroidered message “Dior for my real friends.” Rick Owens, ever the disruptor, staged a spectacle of epic proportions—we saw 10 looks, each repeated 20 times, on a total of 200 models—that was, at its core, a conversation about intimacy. Its vastness made one feel both small and present. “We’re trying to give people options to what are standard conventional ideas of aesthetics,” Owens said. “If we can blur the lines and make people consider other things, maybe that can lead to blurring the lines in consideration of how people treat each other.” My seatmates all cried.
Haider Ackermann staged a tiny show that underscored the hulking proportions of his clothes, his magnificent jackets and trousers caressing the knees of every attendee as they walked by. Likewise at Stella McCartney, whose tightly-sat show at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs amplified the laidback sultriness of her ode to sea-side living, a theme also touched upon at Loewe. The body and the best way to expose it were top of mind, starting in Milan with MSGM’s cheeky nod to cruising and sex: “They have to be addressed with no shame or judgment, because it’s who we are,” he said. Loosening up after a fall collection rooted in the constraining formality of traditional masculinity, Raf Simons and Calvin Klein cut their trousers slouchy and shortened the hems of their tops, effectively making the midriff the key erogenous zone of the season, though who attended in short shorts and a loose button down that revealed his abdomen also did his part. Add Gucci, Prada, and Fendi to that mix—almost everyone seemed eager to follow that happy trail. The Pitti Uomo in January emphasized wearability. Classicality remained a theme this season, but there was a new sense of nonchalance at Ami, Jil Sander, and Lemaire. “Sophisticated, but not pretentious” is how Ami’s Alexandre Mattiusi described it. While ties remained a thing, a couple of key labels in Milan satirized them. They were comically long at Marni and irrationally large at JW Anderson. “Irrational clothing,” is how Anderson summed up his eponymous collection, an idea that somewhat wraps the season. “We can sell clothes, which is great. But the goal for an artist is to create emotion,” said Mike Amiri. He’s found a sweet spot between his appetite for coolness and his romantic sensibility, and his show was a little pocket of joy packed in the middle of the week.
But there was no emotional high or sense of community quite like that felt at Dries Van Noten’s farewell show, which drew a who’s-who of fellow designers. Swapping nostalgia and sentimentalism for a timely sense of forward-looking optimism, he sent out metallic florals and breezy fabrics with a spellbinding buoyancy, a key story of the season that he gave a sense of gravitas to. That is what he’s always done—replace the occasional banality of this that we do with a raison d’être.
Core Work
Midriffs and happy trails become the center of attention.
A Leg Up
But gams got a closer look, too.
Give Me A (High) Break
Slim jackets with short lapels for a sense of dressiness…
Invertebrate Tailoring
…And billowing fabrics on coats and trousers for a sense of ease.
Easy Breezy
Sheer outerwear and trousers for a healthy dose of contradiction.
Call the Gardener
Lavender carriers and head-to-toe florals.
Too Many Lines Crossed
Plaid is now a spring fabric.
Waistland
Foldover and inside-out waistbands underline the midriff erogenous zone.
A Classic Man
You can’t go wrong with a nice shirt and good pair of pants.
I See Paris, I See France
Why can I see your underpants? Cotton boxers make a comeback.
Untied
Funky ties that undo last season’s formality.
